Courting Controversy

A letter in response to Peter J. Boyer’s article (June 23, 2008)

Boyer has captured well Olbermann’s in-your-face dogma. Olbermann’s bombast masks his self-absorption, a behavioral style that is often pompous, parabolic, and paranoid, all at once. He purports to find truth in his shallow predispositions, reacting with impulsive verbal swipes at imagined adversaries and imposing senselessly juvenile labels on events that he cannot understand, let alone interpret. Pity MSNBC, which has installed a practitioner of neo-reactionary journalism. Seeing conspiracies everywhere, Olbermann liberally tosses shock grenades, hoping to disembowel and find smut in the entrails of a complex political culture that eludes his intelligence. His commentaries depict only the low-grade rationality of a warped mind driven by vindictive, defensive, and falsely redemptive motives. Olbermann’s endgame is himself; the costs to MSNBC might well come in the form of TV remotes everywhere, clicking to other channels.

Robert Lockwood

Williamsburg, Va.

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